The following article has appeared in the Young Company Finance July Issue.
‘West of Scotland business angel syndicate Kelvin Capital (www.kelvincapital.com) recently secured a partnership with Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Co-investment Fund (SCF), which will give it additional resources for investing in and supporting young companies. Unlike a standard fund, the SCF does not find and negotiate investment deals on its own, but instead agrees partnerships with private sector investors. The SCF partner finds the opportunity, negotiates the terms of the deal, and offers to invest its own equity cash, calling on the SCF as required to co-invest any amount up to the same sum that the partner is investing. Kelvin Capital investments are fully EIS approved, to ensure that investors can take advantage of the tax benefits this provides.
The UK Business Angels Association was launched on 2nd July, the successor to the British Business Angels Association, and starts life with more support than its predecessor and plans to extend to cater for a new class of super angels.
The Association’s first chairman is Sir Nigel Rudd, industrialist and successful angel investor, who said “I have been an active angel investor for many years and helping to fund and support new ideas and young, ambitious management teams, has provided me with some of my most enjoyable and memorable business experiences. And whilst not every investment has worked out exactly as I had hoped over the long term and across a diversified portfolio I have made a good return.”
The Association will also have a new dedicated team and will be relocated within Pinners Hall, home of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). It also has the backing of several other players in the business finance marketplace besides the BBA, including the Business Growth Fund (BGF), Capital for Enterprise Ltd, NESTA, and Lloyds TSB Commercial. The new UKBAA website www.ukbusinessangelsassociation.org.uk is currently under construction.
David Grahame, director of LINC Scotland, the national association for business angels in Scotland, said “It is good to see a refreshed initiative which should provide a more cohesive approach to developing the angel market in the rest of the UK and I congratulate them on securing such a high quality chairman. We are already looking at ways in which our two organisations can collaborate on some of our shared objectives.”
Bradenham Partners LLP (www.bradenhampartners.co.uk) is the latest investment house to join the LINC Scotland network. The group, founded three years ago and based in Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire and Glasgow, has a team of three founding partners – Keith Wilson, Ian Morrison and David Robb. Keith has been successfully involved in the food services sector for over 20 years while Ian and David are both highly experienced corporate finance advisors, initially with KPMG Corporate Finance and more recently with Morrison Watson LLP. Bradenham will consider investments in a wide variety of sectors, with investments to date in the catering disposables, consumer cleaning and on-line retail sectors. Its first investment in Scotland is in Vegware (www.vegware.com), which is going from strength to strength, having this year won the Innovations in Packaging Award at the industry’s Footprint Awards, the Business Commitment to the Environment (BCE) Environmental Leadership Award and the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Green Company of the Year Award.’
